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HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, Oct. 3) - Chamorros were ancient businessmen who bartered and traded among each other, with Spanish galleons and with other islands. From their early youth, Chamorros were natural risk-takers, thriving on physical prowess on the high seas.

The Spanish documented trading with the Chamorros from Magellan's first encounter. The following account is quoted from Ayer Manuscript 1409A of the Boxer Codex. It documents trade between a Spanish galleon around 1590 AD. The trading occurs some 12 miles out in open sea.

"When a large ship is sighted, so many of these vessels (referring to proas) appear that they seem to blanket the sea. The sea tosses them about and the islanders board the ship to fetch iron, which is like gold to them, because they value it more (than gold) and use it in all their farm work and in preparing clearings for their garden plots.

HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, Oct. 3) - A Wednesday public hearing clearly showed that Guam residents have strong feelings about an initiative to legalize casino gambling, whether they are for or against it.

A legislative committee heard testimony on whether there should be a special election to decide the gaming question. The initiative has garnered enough signatures to guarantee its placement on the General Election ballot next year.

In answering the special election question, we have to ignore the arguments for and against legalized gambling. Instead, the sole focus must be on the feasibility and practicality of a special election. And the bottom line is that it's neither practical nor feasible to hold it now.

The financial condition of our government remains dire. Despite the passage of a fiscal 2004 budget, senators and the administration both have recognized that there isn't enough...

HONOLULU (Oct. 2) -- The Iraq oil industry, calling its own shots without U.S. control, should get production levels up to about 3.1 million barrels a day by April, an East-West Center energy expert said, and that will likely lead OPEC to further cut oil production in December.

Fereidun Fesharaki, who hosted a meeting of Iraqi oil officials in Dubai two weeks ago, is convinced that the country is now able to increase oil production after a number of failures to meet earlier forecasts. "People discounted the idea that they (Iraq) could increase production. They're now able to do it and the market was surprised," said Fesharaki, a former energy adviser to the prime minister of Iran before joining the East-West Center.

Last week OPEC unexpectedly agreed to cut oil production by 900,000 barrels a day instead of waiting until next year when Iraqi oil production was predicted to increase. OPEC...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (PNG Post-Courier, Oct. 2) - Revelations by the Minister for Labor and Industrial Relations Peter Yama of some 10,000 illegal immigrants living in Papua New Guinea comes as no surprise.

PNG authorities charged with the responsibility of ensuring no foreign citizens enter this country illegally have failed to do their jobs.

Anyone can enter PNG at any time and Customs and Immigration officers at ports of entry will not detect anything wrong with them. This is scandalous and totally unacceptable.

The Government must explain why these people are in PNG and what steps, if any, are being taken to remove them from PNG — let alone charge them for being illegally in this country.

The notorious passport scam which still remains a mystery and now this revelation by Mr Yama are scandals which the Government must face up to deal with as a matter of urgency.

HONIARA, Solomon Islands (SIBC, Oct. 5) – The Legal Adviser for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Dr Transform Aqorau, says culture and traditional knowledge are very important for the region.

Dr Aqorau's was speaking last week at a meeting for legal experts on the protection of traditional knowledge and expressions of culture in Noumea.

He said in a cultural and anthropological sense, culture and traditional knowledge define people, they tell them who they are, where they come from, and link them to the past that teaches, and shapes people today.

Dr Aqorau added that "these cultural expressions empower people and make them different from others," saying it is these unique characteristics that people want to protect.

He said however that the challenges confronting the Pacific Islands are complex and require concerted effort.

HAGATNA, Guam (Pacific Daily News, Oct. 5) - Ignacio "Buck" Cruz and other Chamorro survivors of World War II, whose numbers have dwindled in the more than half century that has passed since the Japanese occupation of the island, will finally be able to tell their story.

It is a story not known to most Americans who remain unaware of Guam's unique place in history. A story about loyal Chamorros subjugated on the only U.S. soil occupied during World War II. A story about Chamorros tortured by occupiers and, for so many, slain by enemy soldiers using bayonets, grenades and other tools of execution. A story about Chamorro wives left without their husbands, Chamorro children left without their fathers and mothers.

It was on Dec. 8, 1941, when enemy planes dropped bombs on the island, beginning the four-year Japanese occupation of Guam. Now, 62 years later, Cruz and others who survived the war will be able to tell their story to a...

MELBOURNE, Australia (Radio Australia, Oct. 6) - The Royal New Zealand Air Force has sent a second Orion reconnaissance aircraft to the Tokelau islands, to continue the search for three teenagers reported missing in a small boat.

The youths - aged 13 to 15 - were last seen on Saturday afternoon in their four-meter aluminum boat powered by outboard motor.

They are missing near Atufa Atoll, north of Samoa.

After an initial search by locals, a New Zealand Orion on Sunday conducted a radar and visual sweep of 18,000 square kilometers before returning to New Zealand.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.